Tech firms push for NSA surveillance transparency bills

Google, Facebook, Apple and other companies call on Congress to move quickly on NSA legislation.

In addition, the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a Wednesday hearing on oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, one piece of legislation that allows NSA surveillance.

One of the bills most likely to pass, said Greg Nojeim, CDT's senior counsel, is the FISA Accountability and Privacy Protection Act, sponsored by Leahy. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy has the power to push the bill through committee.

That bill would end the bulk collection of telephone metadata now happening at the NSA. It requires that telephone data collection orders pertain to an agent of a foreign power or be relevant to the activities of an agent of a foreign power. The bill also requires inspector general audits of past data collection of U.S. records at the NSA.